Rethinking Foreign Aid

The Pape reading this week gave some counterintuitive insight into the background of the typical suicide bomber. While the consensus in Washington is that terrorists are bred in conditions of destitute poverty, it appears that Islamic terrorists are in fact much more highly educated and economically better off than their peers. This faulty thinking in Washington has led to an increase in foreign aid to Middle Eastern countries where American resentment seems to be highest. Much of this US aid has come in the form of educational packages. I did a little research on the state school system in Pakistan, where the US gave a $100 million dollar educational package in September 2002. According to an article by Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute "Education and Indoctrination in the Islamic World," in the Pakistani public schools, a course entitled "Pakistani Studies" was taught throughout the 90's and into the 2000's that was focused on the Islamisization of Pakistani students. Non-Muslims were portrayed as being evil and threatening, and textbooks called for all secular knowledge to be learned reluctantly and with great skepticism. Even after current Pakistani President Pervez Musharaaf’s educational reforms in 2002, in which he attempted to eliminate militant Islamic extremism from state schools, a report by the Pakistani Sustainable Development Institute in 2003 found that reform was unsuccessful. The report stated that state schools continue to “breed hate, intolerance, and a distorted world view" (Coulson 7).

With these findings, it would seem that a September 2002 commitment by USAID to send $100 Million over five years for general education reform in Pakistan could be a very misguided move indeed. The American taxpayer is in effect paying money to support state schools in Pakistan that teach children to hate Americans. This is perhaps the epitome of government waste, when taxpayer dollars are contributing to the lowered safety of the American taxpayer.